Small Business Owners Demand Rollback as Debate on Early-Morning Deliveries by Large Supermarkets Drags On

Closed-door Meeting with Euljiro Committee on 23rd
Gap Confirmed as Win-win Measures Left Undiscussed
Small-business Community: "Appropriateness Must Be Reconsidered"
Cautious Voices Within Ruling Camp Point to Prolonged Controversy

The ruling party, the government, and the presidential office are struggling to come up with win-win measures to ease the backlash from small business owners who oppose allowing early-morning deliveries by large supermarkets, but the knot shows little sign of being untied. As the small-business community is strongly pushing back on the premise that it must first be reconsidered from scratch whether easing regulations on large supermarkets as a way to keep online platforms in check is appropriate, the growing pains are not expected to subside anytime soon.

On the 6th, in front of the main gate of the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, participants at a press conference organized by Hanguk Jungsosangin Jayeongeopja Chongyeonhaphoe, Mateu Saneop Nodongjoap, and Chamyeo Yeondae Minsaeng Huimang Bonbu are condemning the government and the ruling party for pushing to allow early-morning delivery by large supermarkets. Yonhap News

According to related industries on the 26th, organizations representing small business owners held a closed-door meeting on the 23rd at the National Assembly in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, with the Minjoo Party of Korea’s Euljiro Committee, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and others, to discuss a revision to the Distribution Industry Development Act whose core is to allow early-morning deliveries by large supermarkets. The meeting was attended by officials from small-business organizations such as the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, the Korea Foodservice Industry Central Association, and the National Supermarket Cooperative Federation, as well as officials from relevant ministries including Vice Minister Lee Byeongkwon, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and lawmakers from the Minjoo Party’s Euljiro Committee.

Originally, at this meeting the ruling party and the government were scheduled to focus discussions on the difficulties facing the small-business community and on win-win measures following the decision to allow early-morning deliveries by large supermarkets. However, it is reported that these issues were not even discussed because the gap between the two sides could not be narrowed. This was because the small-business side argued that, before any discussion of win-win measures, they must first go back to square one and debate whether it is appropriate to allow early-morning deliveries by large supermarkets at all. A representative of the small-business community who attended the meeting said, “The meeting time was short and the gap between the two sides was too wide, so we were not able to talk about win-win measures.”

The small-business community has consistently maintained the position that the plan to allow early-morning deliveries by large supermarkets itself must be withdrawn. They argue that this is not a reasonable measure to keep online platforms in check, which has been cited as the key reason the ruling party, the government, and the presidential office decided, for the first time in 14 years, to ease regulations on large supermarkets. The Minjoo Party had until now maintained a negative stance on easing regulations on large supermarkets, but it is known to have changed its position after the issue of monopoly and oligopoly by online platforms surfaced following Coupang’s large-scale personal data leak last year.

Lee Chungwhan, president of the National Merchants Association, said, “Various alternatives, including the creation of a fund, are being mentioned, but none of them have been discussed at all with small business owners,” adding, “Our position that early-morning deliveries by large supermarkets must be blocked remains unchanged.”

As a cautious view of this plan is emerging even within the ruling camp, related discussions are entering a protracted phase. The small-business community is currently demanding that small-business owners participate in the process of discussing whether to allow early-morning deliveries by large supermarkets, calling for the holding of public debates and other forums. A representative of the small-business community said, “A broad framework for how to design the competitive structure between online platforms and offline distribution channels must first be established,” adding, “We have already conveyed our position that the scale of meetings at the National Assembly should be expanded so that more small business owners can participate than now, and that their frequency should also be increased.”